


See You Soon

by boywonder



Category: The Last of Us
Genre: Gen, Missing Scene
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-12-19
Updated: 2015-12-19
Packaged: 2018-05-07 18:18:37
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,848
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5466245
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/boywonder/pseuds/boywonder
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>
  <i>Ellie squeezed Riley's hand, hoping Riley would go with her on this. Even if they were going to die - and they were, that was already decided - she didn't want to die here in this fucking mall with the bastard infected who had doomed them. She wanted to die somewhere else. Shouldn't she get a choice? Shouldn't they both get a choice?</i>
</p>
            </blockquote>





	See You Soon

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Sumi](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Sumi/gifts).



The twenty-four hours following the bite seemed to be the slowest hours of Ellie's life, and the fastest. It was a slow hell, sitting and waiting to go crazy, alone or not. But looking back later, she'd always just wish she'd had more time, or done more in the few hours she had left with Riley. Looking back, it seemed like it had passed in the blink of an eye.

She and Riley sat in the mall for a long time, saying nothing. Neither of them really bothered to do anything about the bite wounds. It didn't seem like a big deal, worrying about a small infection, when the only infection that _really mattered_ was already working its way through your bloodstream.

After the realization, they didn't say much. Ellie's hand found its way into Riley's, and they held on so tightly that their fingernails dug into each other's hands. It didn't matter. 

The Fireflies found them before anyone else did. Ellie didn't know exactly how much time had passed. She didn't feel any differently. Riley didn't seem any different, either. She wondered if it happened all at once, or if it happened slowly. It wasn't like anyone lived through it to tell anyone else about it. And usually, when you found out someone was infected, you killed them before it could get bad. Or they killed themselves.

"What are you doing in here alone?" one of the fireflies demanded.

"Playing hooky," Riley said, defensively, glaring up at him. She was always better at glaring, Ellie thought, though Ellie tried to mimic the hardness in Riley's eyes when she looked up at the Fireflies too.

"You could get killed here," another said, though she sounded more tired than angry, or even concerned. 

"Well, we didn't," Ellie said.

The woman rolled her eyes. "Come on, we'll get you out of here."

"Lucky we found you instead of the military," the man said.

He offered his hand to the girls, then stopped, seeing the blood on them.

Suddenly, both Fireflies had guns aimed at them.

"You're bleeding," the man said.

"Not anymore," Riley said, still on the defensive.

Ellie stood up and yanked Riley up with her. "We're _fine_ ," she said, hoping she sounded much more sure of herself than she thought. "There were infected. We killed them. They still bleed, you know."

The man didn't lower his gun. Of course, they'd seen the bodies, but the idea that the girls had actually _killed_ them was a slow, dawning realization.

Ellie squeezed Riley's hand, hoping Riley would go with her on this. Even if they were going to die - and they were, that was already decided - she didn't want to die here in this fucking mall with the bastard infected who had doomed them. She wanted to die somewhere else. Shouldn't she get a choice? Shouldn't they both get a choice?

Anyway, wasn't Riley the one who said they should wait it out?

"Look, just take us back to Marlene, okay?" Riley said.

Ellie let out a breath she didn't know she was holding.

There was hesitation in the man's eyes, but a sound from behind them jarred him.

"I doubt they're all gone," the woman said, "Let's just take them and go. We can figure it out. They can't have been here that long."

The implication was obvious: even if they were infected, they weren't going to turn in the time it took them to get to Marlene. The good thing about being kids was that the Fireflies, at least, didn't want to shoot them too eagerly.

If the Fireflies recognized either of them, they never let on. It was only later that it occurred to Ellie that they _must_ have known. Why else would they take _kids_ to _Marlene_ without asking questions? But in the moment, it was hard to think about anything logically.

It probably _was_ lucky they'd come before the military, because there was no way they'd have gotten such generosity from soldiers.

The trip back to Marlene was relatively uneventful. The Fireflies knew the best way to get there without running into Infected. And anyway, going through the city was a lot safer. Well, safer from Infected, generally speaking. "Safer" was still a relative term.

Marlene ushered the two other Fireflies out without so much as a thank you. She looked like she was having a bad day, Ellie thought. But then, she pretty much always looked like she was having a bad day.

"What the hell are you two doing?" she demanded, as soon as the door was closed.

"Nothing," they both said.

Marlene crossed her arms and looked down at them, clearly not buying it.

"We were just trying to have fun before you shipped Riley off to someplace else," Ellie said. "Not like you were even going to let us say _goodbye_. Well, joke's on you, because she's not going anywhere."

"Ellie, this isn't up to you," Marlene said, sternly. "Riley, you shouldn't have-"

"She's right," Riley said, abruptly. "I'm not going anywhere else. Not now." She'd been looking at the wall, distantly, but now she moved her gaze back to Marlene and stared at her.

Marlene caught on that something was up, and she was quiet for a minute. "Riley, we talked about this."

"It doesn't matter anymore."

"Of course it matters. Everything we do matters. I don't know how many times I've tried to-"

"We're infected," Ellie said, just as abruptly, to save Riley from having to do it.

"That isn't funny," Marlene said, uncrossing her arms.

"Oh, and here I thought it was fucking hilarious," Ellie said back, her hands tightening into fists at her sides.

"She's not making it up," Riley said, holding out her hand. "Look."

There was a lot of blood, obscuring the bite mark, but it had started to spread. Ellie hadn't looked at it since it happened, and she guessed Riley hadn't either. It looked a lot worse than when she'd first seen it, though. 

She looked down at her own arm, expecting the same thing. There was a lot of blood there, too. The bite didn't really look any different, but she figured it was just too bloody to see it.

"Shit," Marlene said. "What did you do?!"

"The same thing anyone else does! We ran into Infected and got bitten!" Ellie said, looking away from her arm and up at Marlene.

"Anyway, I can't go now," Riley said, jerking her hand back down even as Marlene reached for it.

Marlene didn't say anything. It was quiet for a long time - too long for Ellie's comfort.

"Are you going to shoot us?" Ellie finally asked. All the worry she'd been hiding finally came through in her voice. 

Marlene sighed, shakily, and collapsed into a nearby chair. "Shit," she said again. "No, I'm not going to shoot you."

"Is someone else going to shoot us?" Riley asked, sounding less worried than Ellie, but still worried enough.

"No one is going to shoot you."

"Yet, you mean," Ellie said.

"Yet," Marlene agreed. "Tell me what happened."

They told her, at least most of it. How they'd been playing around, turning the music on, being attacked. Ellie tried to say it was her fault, that she'd fallen, but Riley wouldn't have any of that and defended her. Marlene didn't outright blame either of them. She was pissed - Ellie could see that on her face - but it didn't do any good to get mad over it now. What was done was done, and they were both ticking time bombs.

"How long has it been?" Marlene asked.

Both girls were quiet for a minute. 

"I don't know," Ellie said. "Couple hours, I guess? Riley?"

Riley shrugged one shoulder, but nodded. "Something like that."

Marlene stood up again, steeling herself. Whatever she'd been feeling, she pushed it off her face and returned to practiced stoicism. 

"Let's get you cleaned up and we'll go from there," she said.

They both got showers, and they got a room. It was small, but at least they were together.

Marlene had someone bring bedding in for them. She didn't return their things, though.

A little while later, she showed up herself.

It had probably been about four hours since they'd been bitten. Maybe five. Certainly not more than that.

"Here's how it's gonna go," Marlene said. "You stay here until morning, and I'll come see how you are then. I'm locking the door. There's no window in this room. Don't do anything dumb like try to get out. You get out of this room without me letting you out, someone will shoot you. I don't want it to be like that, you understand?"

Ellie and Riley looked at each other, then looked back at Marlene. They both nodded.

"Good. And here. Take this. Whatever you do with it is up to you. Consider it peace of mind. It's got two shots in it, so don't waste 'em."

She held out a pistol. Both girls were hesitant to do anything. Finally, Riley reached out with her uninfected hand and took it.

Marlene looked at Ellie, and started to say something, but changed her mind.

Instead, she just said, "I'll see you in the morning."

"Yeah," Ellie said. Riley didn't say anything.

They'd been given two sleeping bags and some rough pillows. It wasn't much, but it was more than most people who got bitten got, from the Fireflies or otherwise. Ellie figured it was because they were kids, or because Marlene had known her mom, or whatever. It didn't matter. They both knew they probably wouldn't see Marlene in the morning. They probably wouldn't see much of anything in another few hours.

"Do you want to sleep?" Riley asked.

Ellie shook her head. "Nah. I'd rather spend my last few hours of sanity enjoying it. Or at least...not sleeping through it."

Riley laughed a little. "Yeah, I don't know how much 'enjoying' there is do in a tiny room with no windows, surrounded by people who want to kill us."

"Hey, that's not much different from military training, right?" Ellie said.

They both laughed far too long about it. 

They talked for awhile, about nothing much. Later, when Ellie tried to remember their last conversations, she couldn't recall the details. They weren't talking about anything, they were just talking. 

"Hey Riley?" 

"Yeah?"

"Can I see yours?"

"...Yeah." Riley held out her hand. It looked at least ten times worse than it had when Ellie had seen it in Marlene's room. 

"How about you?" Riley said, taking her hand back.

Ellie held out her arm.

Riley stared.

"Holy shit, Ellie, yours is _the same_ ,"

"Yeah, it's gross, I know."

"No, I mean, it's the same as it was before. It hasn't changed at all!"

"That's bullshit," Ellie said, and dropped her arm without looking at it herself.

"No, it isn't. Look!" Riley grabbed Ellie's arm and brought it up again. "Look at it."

Ellie rolled her eyes, thinking this was the least funny joke she'd ever heard, but she looked down anyway. Riley opened her hand and held it next to Ellie's arm. There was no denying that there was a huge difference between the wounds. Ellie's looked like a bite, complete with teeth and everything, but Riley's looked like it was spreading. Ellie's looked...clean. There wasn't a better word for it.

"So what? It doesn't mean anything."

"What if it _does_? What if you're not actually infected?"

"Come on, that's stupid. Everyone gets infected."

"Yeah, but what if you _didn't_? Ellie, do you know what that could mean?" Riley grabbed Ellie's shoulders and looked into her eyes. "If you're immune, other people might be, too."

Ellie jerked away. "So what? Who fucking cares? It's probably just taking longer because of where I was bit or something. We're going to _die_. We're going to die in this _stupid room_ , and whether you go first or I do, it doesn't matter because we're still going to _die_!" 

Saying it out loud hurt, but it was also almost a relief. They'd been refusing to talk about it the whole time, but here they were, locked in a room with a gun on the floor and Fireflies ready to shoot them if they couldn't do it themselves. Acknowledging it almost made it easier.

Almost.

Riley's positivity fled with Ellie's words. She slumped down onto her sleeping bag, defeated.

"I don't want to die in this stupid room," she said.

"I don't want to die," Ellie said, coming and sitting next to Riley. She tried to sniff away her tears, but it didn't work. She could feel them start to slide down her face. It wasn't hysterics or bawling, but there were definitely tears. When she looked over at Riley, she was crying, too.

Riley slid her arm around Ellie.

"I'm glad I get to die with you."

"Me too," said Ellie, sliding an arm around Riley in return.

They both looked down at the gun. Riley kicked it and it skidded across the floor and just under the corner of Ellie's sleeping bag.

They stayed like that for so long that Ellie didn't remember falling asleep.

When she woke up, who knew how many hours later, Riley wasn't next to her anymore. Half-asleep, she scrambled to her feet. A million thoughts ran through her mind - Riley had gotten out anyway, Riley had already killed herself, Marlene had come and taken Riley away so she had to die alone after all. Luckily - or unluckily - none of those things were correct.

"Riley?" she asked, barely above a whisper. The room was dim, but not too dark to see.

Riley was standing up too, facing away from Ellie, but she didn't answer.

"Riley!" Ellie said again, louder.

Riley cocked her head. There was something unnatural in the movement. Ellie felt her heart skip a beat.

Before she could say Riley's name again, the other girl hand turned around and started toward her. As soon as her gaze fell on Ellie, she rushed the smaller girl. There was no recognition in Riley's eyes, just like there hadn't been any in the eyes of the Infected that had done this to her.

Ellie barely had time to react. She skidded out of Riley's path, and Riley crashed into the wall. 

"Riley!" Ellie said, hoping against hope that she would hear, that she would somehow snap out of it. Ellie didn't feel any different herself, so maybe Riley was still somewhere in there.

_Bullshit,_ she told herself, scrambling through the sleeping bag, looking for the gun.

Riley rushed her again, and this time she made contact. They both fell, Ellie fighting as hard as she could to stay out of the way of Riley's grasping hands and gnashing teeth. The noises she made were some unnatural distortion, like Riley's own voice recorded and then warped and then played back. 

An eternity passed while Ellie fought Riley off with her feet and one arm, other arm searching blindly under the rumpled sleeping bag for the gun she knew had been kicked there.

Finally, she found it. She kicked Riley extra hard, forcing the other girl back. They were almost evenly matched for strength, despite their size difference. Or at least, they had been; now, Riley had the crazy strength of the other Infected. So while she managed to push Riley off her somewhat, it wasn't very far.

Riley came again, relentless, undeterred.

Ellie fumbled with the gun. She got it between them and squeezed the trigger. The sound seemed so loud in her ears, but it didn't echo much in the room; the muzzle of the gun was against Riley's torso, and it had gone off directly against her.

The shot forced Riley off of Ellie. She fell backwards

Ellie forced herself to her feet. There was only one more shot in the gun, and it _had_ to count.

Maybe there was something poetic in it after all, wasn't there? So they hadn't lost their minds together, but if Ellie missed her shot, Riley was going to kill her. Somewhere there was something poetic. Maybe.

Ellie had never been very good at understanding poetry.

Ellie raised the gun up as Riley got back on her feet. Riley's head swiveled violently back and forth for a long, horrible moment. She found Ellie again - by sight, or smell, or sound, Ellie didn't know - and came for her.

"I'll see you soon, Riley," Ellie said, steadying the gun in both hands and squeezing the trigger again.

The shot was much louder this time. Ellie felt like she was watching something happen in slow motion, or maybe watching it happen to someone else, because it could not _possibly_ be happening to her.

The shot took Riley in the forehead, just off-center to the left. The sound was a familiar one - a bullet hitting flesh, pushing through bone. Ellie had heard it before. It was accompanied by an absence, as well; Riley stopped making noise almost immediately after.

Blood sprayed, mostly backwards. Ellie wasn't close enough to get any on her.

Riley fell again and didn't get up.

"Riley?" Ellie said, frozen there, holding the gun out in front of her.

Of course there was no answer.

Ellie stared at Riley's body for a long time. How many hours had it been? How many hours had they talked? How many hours had she slept through?

How many hours did she have left until she met the same fate as her only real friend?

That thought was too much. She dropped the gun and put her hand over her mouth, as if that could stop her from sobbing.

She didn't exactly sob, but she felt sick. She couldn't manage to find any tears now. 

The room seemed to shrink around her, and she couldn't look away from Riley's body, from the blood pooled around it.

Somehow, she managed to pull herself out of it enough to turn to the door. She pounded on it.

"Let me out! Let me out of here! Marlene! Come get me the fuck out of this room!"

She didn't know how long she went on. She was well on her way to hoarseness by the time she gave up. She sat against the door, pulled her knees up to her chest, and wrapped her arms around them. She sat there staring at Riley - at the thing that had once been Riley - for a long time.

Maybe more hours passed, or maybe only minutes.

Finally, there were steps outside.

"Ellie? Can you hear me?"

Ellie looked up. Her throat felt so dry, she wasn't sure she could manage to respond. But what would happen if she didn't? Nothing good, that was for sure.

"...Yeah. Yeah! I can hear you, I'm here," she managed. The words were more than a little croaky, but by the end of it they more or less sounded like words.

"I'm going to open the door. Don't run."

"Okay," Ellie said. She pushed herself back to her feet, though she felt like her body weighed too much. Still, other than that, she didn't feel any different; she didn't feel any less _Ellie_.

Ellie turned around just as the door opened. Marlene stood there. She was holding a gun, but it wasn't raised. There were two others behind her, and their guns _were_ raised.

"There were two shots," Marlene said, almost questioningly.

"She attacked me. One wasn't enough. I hit her in the stomach but she got back up." Ellie said. Her words were shaky, and they sounded hollow in her ears.

Marlene looked concerned, but forced it away.

"And you? How do you feel?"

"Shitty, okay?! I just killed my _best friend_ after she tried to eat me or whatever! How would you fucking feel?"

"I'm sorry about Riley," Marlene said, though Ellie sure didn't think it sounded sincere, "but I want to know if you feel any...different."

"You want to know if I'm about to go full Infected on you," Ellie said, and the words were more like an accusation.

"Yeah. I do."

Ellie shrugged. "I don't know if I am or not. I don't know what it feels like before you go nuts and become like them. I don't feel any different than I ever do, except I feel sick and thirsty and kind of pissed off. Okay?"

Marlene stared at her for a long moment.

"Let me see your arm."

"What?"

"The bite on your arm. Let me see it."

Ellie frowned, but after a second she did what Marlene asked, holding out her arm.

Marlene held Ellie's wrist in her free hand and peered down at the wound. It still didn't look like it was spreading. The bites had scabbed over, the way any wound would. Any wound _except_ an Infected bite.

"Did you really get bitten by Infected?" Marlene asked, looking into Ellie's face but keeping hold of her wrist.

"No, I made it up so I could shoot Riley. Are you fucking joking? How can you even ask me that? Would you _look in that room and tell me how you can even think that_?"

Marlene shook her head. "Ellie, I've never seen a bite heal up like this."

"Riley's didn't look like that. I saw it last night. We were attacked at the same time, I told you-"

"I know what you told me. And I know I'm looking at a bite on your arm that healed up when _no one else's_ has. It's been almost a whole day since you were bitten. Most people turn much sooner. And you seem fine."

Ellie jerked her hand away. "What do you want me to do about it?"

Marlene motioned to the man and woman behind her, and they lowered their guns. "I don't know yet. But if you really don't turn, then...it could be big. It could mean there's a way to vaccinate other people so they don't either."

"Why the hell should I care about that? It's too late for Riley."

"Ellie-"

"I want to go home."

"You know I can't let you go back to the military. Not only will they be pissed you ran off, but they'll never let you live with a bite on your arm like that."

"And you're going to?"

"Long as you don't turn into one of them, yes. I'm going to."

Ellie crossed her arms. "Can I just...please get out of this room."

Marlene glanced into the room behind Ellie, then finally nodded.

"All right. We'll get you a better room. I have to station someone to keep an eye on you, just in case."

"Yeah."

"This really could change things for a lot of people, you know."

"Yeah."

"I really am sorry about Riley."

"Yeah."

Unexpectedly, Marlene reached out and pulled Ellie close. She hugged her, only for a brief second, then let her go.

"Come on. Bet you're hungry."

Ellie shrugged, then nodded. She didn't look back into the room behind her; she couldn't bear to.

_See you soon, Riley_ , she thought.


End file.
